It cannot be the oupir
Oct. 11th, 2023 04:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bloodygranuaileA few Christmases ago I picked up a beautifully bound hardback copy of J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla at the Strand, and then last year I subscribed to Carmilla Weekly rather than read it. This year, I decided reading the pretty book would be more fun!
Though it’s only been a year since my last reread, I once again forgot just how gay this book is. It is well-known that 19th century vampires stories–of which there are many, though for some reason every one that isn’t Dracula likes to present itself as the singular and only precursor to Dracula–are full of homoerotic subtext, and that knowledge exerts such a pull on my brain that every time I step away from Carmilla for like five seconds I apparently start thinking that it applies here, too. This is incorrect. It is not subtext. I swear to God one of these years I will remember that the homoeroticism in this one is just regular text.
At any rate, it’s such an excellent little creepy read! I swear it gets better every time I read it. Just a perfect little bite-size (heh) vampire story for October.
Though it’s only been a year since my last reread, I once again forgot just how gay this book is. It is well-known that 19th century vampires stories–of which there are many, though for some reason every one that isn’t Dracula likes to present itself as the singular and only precursor to Dracula–are full of homoerotic subtext, and that knowledge exerts such a pull on my brain that every time I step away from Carmilla for like five seconds I apparently start thinking that it applies here, too. This is incorrect. It is not subtext. I swear to God one of these years I will remember that the homoeroticism in this one is just regular text.
At any rate, it’s such an excellent little creepy read! I swear it gets better every time I read it. Just a perfect little bite-size (heh) vampire story for October.